Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 247, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1912 — Page 3

The Corrector of Destinies

Being Tale* of Randolph Mason as Related by His Private Secretary, Courtland Parks THE LAST CHECK

I believe it was a theory of Robert Louis Stevenson that one could have no sense of completer physical comfort in this life than to escape from the “Bastille of Civilization” and dine on tinned bologna and a cake of chocolate under the pines of Gevaudan, “Where God keeps an open house." The average dweller in New Yorjc, who could hardly locate Gevaudan with an atlas, will I think, be found skeptically dissenting. He will cite, rather, the comfortable state of one 'who takes his steaming dinner at a good hostelry. Let the table be set snugly by a window, let the night be dark and rainy, let one warm and hungry look out at the splashing street, the , bedrabbled passers, the huddled cabmen turning their glistening backs to the wind. It is like sitting comfortably in Abraham’s bosom, with a good view of Dives! Oh such a night of April, I had the corner table at a window in the Dresden looking out in the dripping avenue, a good dinner set over a white cloth, a bottle cooling in a tub of ice, a cigar awaiting me on the servant’s tray, a hunger like a wood-chopper’s and a certainty of exemption from the rigor of the elements. I had arrived happily at my coffee with its thimble of brandy, when a servant came to say that a carriage was waiting for me at the door. I replied that I had ordered no carriage, and began to cut the end of my cigar. The man went away, but almost instantly returned, saying that some one in a carriage wished to see me at once. I went to the door and the porter took me under his umbrella to the carriage. I had no idea who demanded thus peremptorily to see me, and my surprise was not greatly lessened when Randolph Mason’s voice spoke to me out of the darkness of the carriage, bidding me accompany him. I returned to the hotel, got my coat and hat and sat down in-the carriage beside him, wondering what could be his mission on this uncomfortable night. It must be an unusual, highly important matter to take him uptown in this chilling rain, for it was rare that. Randolph Mason would leave his tfouse to see any man, no matter of what Importance. His view of men was that attributed academically to the law —an equality Ideally exact: if one’s affairs presented a suitable problem, the individual In It was a factor to be estimated and dealt with, but otherwise not to be considered. This voyaging in the night then meant first that the person Involved could not go to Mason. It might be some man behind a lock, some innocent person Involved in another’s wrong-doing who had been suddenly seized and must be helped back to his freedom, or else it was a woman.

In the meantime the carriage continued uptown. Randolph Mason was silently smoking a cigar, lying back in his corner of the seat, and I followed hts example. It thus happened I took no notice of our route. However, after perhaps an hour, the carriage stopped and I observed that we were under the porte-cochere of one of the new palaces on Riverside Drive. The door was thrown open and we stepped down into the presence of a liveried footman, who led us into the house and removed our coats, and then took us up a flight of great stairs. On the first landing we passed two nurses in their white caps and aprons. A moment later we were ushered into a sitting-room off a bedchamber. Beside a table a man sat propped up in an invalid chair. He was a huge bulk of a man, rather over six feet, 1 should think, with a tremendous, muscular chest, thin gray hair and a heavy, puffy face. Nature had built him for gigantic labors. Energy, strength, decisive action sat in his big muscles; but they were dying now, like the man. A mere loose, devitalized, pudgy hulk remained of what was once a splendid animal. The eye alone seemed living. A brilliant, determined brown eye, burning steady and clear like a ship's light The last, unfailing servant of an Indomitable spirit making ready to abandon its worthless house.

The man nodded to Randolph Mason. For a moment he regarded me with, a curleus glance, then he nodded likewise to me. The servant closed the (Loor, leaving the three of us alone, and we sat down opposite the table beside the sick mau With the light of the lamp full in his face, I knew him now, from his lithograph on various bond issues. He was Richard R. Curtis, president of the Life Assurance Company of North America. His ghastly physical condition oppressed me, he was so evidently intended for all the vitalities of life and he was so evidently dying. I looked at Randolph Mason. He sat scrutinizing the invalid’s face with the sharp, steady glance of one taking stock of what qualities yet remained vital. The helpless man awoke no sentiment in the bosom of Randolph Mason; he regarded him as an engineer examines his machine, tapping .on its wheels; as the elephant of a circus does a bridge, feeling it with his foot The strength remaining to the sick man was Important, not u a measure of

By Melville Davisson Post

life but as a means to the solution of a difficulty. The invalid put out a trembling hand to a glass of some colored liquid on the table, drank it, and finally addressed Randolph Mason, speaking In a thick, scarcely intelligible voice. "You see,” he said, "how fatally truthful my statement was. I could not come to yoUr office. I shall take but one more journey." Randolph Mason nodded his head slightly, as though in assent of some trivial statement and In invitation to proceed to other matters more Important The Invalid continued: “Within the last day or two, I have been going carefully over my affairs under a sense of impending death. In one matter I conceived myself to have made a mistake, and I wish to correct it, if possible. You arte aware es the recent vicious public assault on the insurance companies, a wave of hostile, rabid, universal sentiment. There seems to be no particular reason for it The movement is a phenomenon recurring constantly in the history of our civilization. I believe these periodic storms of public opinion to be organic and Inevitable. All established Institutions, no matter how excellent, are subject to such assaults. I pointed this out ten years ago to the bank officials of New York when a wave £ sentiment threatened the established monetary standard.” He pulled his baggy form together in his chair. As he spoke, his voice became somewhat clearer. “Now. in all this investigation what wrongs have been exposed? Indeed none, outside of a few companies, except that those in control of these Insurance companies had the use of large sums of money and, not being infallible, made sometimes questionable investments; and the further fact that considerable sums were used in politics. Why, gentlemen, everybody knows that the average Assembly of the State is composed largely of men who scheme to extort money from commercial Industries by threatening themp with destructive legislation. The com: merce of today Is no better off than the commerce of the middle ages. It must still purchase immunity from the banditti. Sometimes theje highwaymen can be fought, but usually most industries have found it less expensive to pay the toll. . Consequently, no higher injustice can be imagined than to hold officials of an insurance company responsible for such expenditures. It is like shooting a captain tfor handing over his ship’s money to pirates In order to save his cargo. Why, there is not an insurance company in America that could hold itself together for a year as a moneymaking concern if it neglected to keep a representative at Albany.” “Sir,” said Randolph Mason, “this statement is neither entertaining nor Instructive. Please come to the point"

*‘l beg your pardon," replied the invalid ; “I am coming to the point. Five years ago I foresaw the arrival of this outbreak, there were certain signs which I shall not stop here to discuss ; and I began to prepare my company for this era of exposure. The result of that labor is today evident. My company st?-ds almost alone with a clean bill of health. But the cost to me as an individual would stagger America if it knew. I have done the labor of fifty years in five, and I have expended every dollar that I or my family possessed to accomplish this result. a “You are not to imagine that during this time the political banditti were any the less threatening or avid. I fed them as usual, but, unlike the other companies, I paid this tribute with my individual fortune. Now, then, gentlemen, I have come to the matter in hand.. One year ago a politician of national reputation determined to force my insurance company to bear the expense of his candidacy for a high office. He controlled certain avenues of legislation, and threatened us with a statute which would have sequestered the assets of our company in a dozen different states, recalled its investments, and left it no way profitably to place itr surplus funds. It would have been, in fact, ruin under the guise of law. In plain terms, his price was three* hundred thousand dollars. I got him down to two. I had no longer any money of my own, and I would not use that of the company, even to save it from destruction. My wife owned this house, built with money inherited from her father in England—we were both born in Sussex. I executed a mortgage on it directly to this politician for two hundred thousand dollars. I took this chance with my family and myself. I felt sure that this present wave of Insane outcry against insurance companies would finally pass, and that when business quiet was again established I could rebuild a fortune." The man stopped, his tongue was beginning to get thick. He drank a little more of the colored liquid from the glass. , ' - . “I made the same mistake," he continued, “that the fool did in the parable. This tremendous high-pressure

has worn out the machinery- I awoke a month ago to the fact that I was scrap iron. lam barely fifty and yet every organ is dying of old age—exhausted. I cannot live a week.” The invalid must have seen an expression of impatience or protest in Randolph Mason’s face, because he put up his hand and hurried on. “I have been' thinking over these matters, with Death sitting here at my elbow, and I have come to the conclusion that I have done , a wrong to those dependent on me. The Christian religion puts the infidel first in the catalogue of the condemned, and yet he that provldeth not for his own household is declared worse. Every sentiment of practical humanity stands for the priority of that obligation. I am about to die;, and I have in fact not two dollars to click together, except my salary, which will cease at my death. More than that, I have taken my wife’s estate —her very bread and clothing—and used it for the benefit of others. When the breath leaves me, my wife and children go—where? You and I know the sort of aid one’s business associates extend to a dead man’s family. Resolutions of courteous sympathy, suave promises, and finally the closed door." “Ah!’*' cried the man, beating his puffy fist feebly on the table, “if I had another year! Yes, in the name of God, if I had even another thirty days, I could set it right! But I have not three days! Death cannot be postponed. I could not get another day of life, even another hour of it, for the salvation of the world. I must go

when the finger touches me, Instantly on the tick of the clock. Is there any way to correct this injustice? Can anything be done?” “Nothing could be more simple,” replied Randolph Mason. "You are president of this insurance company; are you not?” "Why, yes, I am still its president,” replied Curtis. “And you doubtless have funds of the company subject to your check,” continued Mason. "I am trustee,” answered the invalid, "for the entire surplus fund of the company deposited In the Regent National Bank of America.” - “Then,” said Mason, "there Is the remedy in your very hands.” An expression of despair returned to the man’s face, bo briefly lighted with hope. "I have thought carefully of that,” he said, "and there is no remedy in that direction. If I gave my wife a check /or any portion of this trust fund, she would doubtless be criminally Involved after my death for receiving embezzled moneys. If I lifted this mortgage from her property with the money, the directors of the insurance company would, when such facts were discovered- after my death, Instantly seize the property and sell it to make good the funds so used. Do not misunderstand me. I would no longer hesitate '-on any moral grounds. I believe that my services to the company are worth a living to my family. At any rate,-now, in the face of death, I would so use the money r.ed take my chance on the right of it before the judge over the frontier. I would not, to save my own life, take these trust

moneys of the company; but to save my family from poverty I would take them if there were any way to do it." “There Is a way to do it," said Randolph Mason. “How much money will it take to satisfy this mortgage?” The Invalid opened a tin dispatch box on the table before him, took out some papers and looked over them a moment. “Two hundred and four thousand and seventy-five dollars,” he replied, “including Interest-until tomorrow.’*™ “Very well,” said* Mason, “write out a check to the holder of this mortgage for that sum.” The sick man spread out a checkbook before him on the table, carefully and laboriously made out a check and handed it to Randolph Mason, who looked at it sharply for a moment, then laid it down on the other papers. “That will do," he said. “Take up your note tomorrow with this check, have the mortgage cancelled and released, direct your wife to sell thiS house instantly for what she can get on the market In cash, take the money so received and go immediately to her relatives In England, and there conceal the money under their names beyond a court’s writ.” He paused a moment; then he looked thoughtfully at the invalid. “A suitable reason for this immediate exodus will be the taking of your body for burial among your ancestors in Sussex.” “All shall be done exactly as you direct,” replied Curtis, leaning heavily on the arm of his chair. “And, now,

If only I could return the money to the insurance company; If only I could even matters with that cold, cruel, cunning political Intriguer, I should die happy.” “Then,” said Mason, “yon will die like the saints. The Assurance Company of North America will not lose a dollar, and matters will be squared once for all with this politician.” The Invalid pulled his baggy frame together. "Human pity,” he said, "has always promised the impossible to the dying, but it is no kindness.” “Sir,” said Mason, *T promise nothing; I merely point out the Inevitable.” “The inevitable,” echoed the man. "Why, only the hand of God could perform the thing you speak of.” "Pardon me,” said Maso&, “your own hand has already done it.” The invalid looked down at his hand, swollen tight in the skin, trembling, purple. "I am too tired,” he said, “to guess what pleasantry you mean. lam like Nicodemus, accustomed to took upon things as they occur in nature. I wish to lift a mortgage from thih property; in order to do that I pay the holder of the mortgage a certain som. That sum is taken from t,he moneys of another. How can it be that the mortgage is thus lifted, the holder of it paid, and yet the funds of that other not taken, and the holder of the mortgage not paid? Such things may be possible tn a land of fairies, but not here, not in New York. Good cash paid over a bank counter does not turn into chips under the pillow of the wicked, neither does an account in bank renew itself like the widow’s

curse. I beg you to tell me what you mean.” "If you will give me a sheet of paper,” replied Mason, “I will show you.” The sick man pointed to a writing pad on the table with a pen and inkstand beside it. Randolph Mason rose, went to the table and wrote rapidly for a moment Then he laid the written page before Mr. Curtis “Copy that,” he said, “in your own hand. Seal it and give it to my secretary, Mr. Parks, to lay before your directors when you are dead.” The eick man turned painfully in his chair, put his elbows on the table, propped up his heavy, putty-colored face in his swollen hands and read the paper. Again and again he read it When he looked up finally his face glowed. “I see it,” he said, as though speaking to himself, "I see it.” Then he sat for a considerable time, holding the paper in his fingers,< his mind intent on this new aspect of the case. At length he turned back to the table, laboriously copied the paper, enclosed it in an envelope, addressed it and handed it to me. Then he spoke to Mason. “I consider this thing,” he said, “to be a providence of God.” "On the contrary,” replied Mason; “it is a mere principle of law.” Then we went out of the room and down through the silent house to our carriage, waiting in the rain. I followed the,sequence of events with the keenest scrutiny. The newspapers contained no notice of the sale of the house on Riverside Drive by

Richard R. Curtis; but I found a deed of sale on record showing a cash consideration of two hundred and twenty thousand dollars. Five days later Mr. Curtis died of Bright's disease. His life and business career were elaborately reviewed in the public prints. I observed the significant item as to his birth in Sussex, and that his body would be taken there for burial. Evidently the directions of Randolph Mason were being followed with scrupulous exactness. All this whetted still keener my curiosity as to the sealed letter in my possession. Finally, on the first Wednesday of the succeeding month the Board of Directors of the Life Assurance Company of North America met at the company’s building on Broadway. I appeared before it and presented the letter. In attendance upon the meeting were some of the great financiers of New York and, among them, the company attorney, Mr. Eustace Ruling, whose reputation as a counselor is established beyond any man’s comment. The chairman of the board took the letter, ripped off the envelope and read it Immediately he ordered a clerk to lay before him the last checks of President Curtis. Then laboring under apparent surprise, he addressed the other members. • “Gentlemen,” he said, "here Is a most astonishing discovery. I find that our late president has used $204,075 of the company’s money with which to pay a private debt of his own. Here is the check and some sort of explanatory note.” Instantly there was a hubbub. In the midst of it Mr. Ruling came fmw&rd and took up the letter and the

check. He read them carefully, the* be laughed. “Well,” he said, "Mr. Curtis seems to have landed on our old friend, the State Boss, with a nice upper cut, from his coffin.” “He seems, on the contrary," replied one of the “to have landed on us. His last official act was to hand over the company’s money to this politician." "Yes,” said the lawyer, "but this payment has a quite sufficient string: to it It is explained fully in his letter. Mr. Curtis advises us that, in order to wipe out a personal debt, a debt legally but not morally just, be hasgiven the man a check on the funds of the company. He begs us to observe that this check directs payment to be made by the bank out of thefunds of the Life Assurance Company of North America, and that It is signed by him as the trustee of such funds. He begs us further to observe that thi» payment is, consequently, plainly on. the face of this check a payment with trust funds. Therefore, this politician takes no title to the money which he will receive by it, and must pay It back to the company.” “I do not quite understand," said one of the directors. “It is all entirely clear,” replied the lawyer. “This check is made payable on a trust fund. It shows on its face that it is drawn on moneys belonging to the Assurance Company and not individually to Richard R. Curtis. This notice is set out fully in the body of the check. The signature with the word, trustee, attached, confirms the trust nature of the fund upon which it is drawn. Now, these political leeches have grown so accustomed to being fed on insurance money that they have come wholly to overlook the law. No doctrine of the law is better settled than that a trust has no power to pay out trust funds in settlement of his private debts, and one who trust funds, with notice of that fact, acquires no title to them and can be made to restore them. The peculiar wording of this check gave full notice that it was drawn on trust~funds. The person who cashed it was thereby fully aware of that fact and, consequently, he must restore this money." "But,” said the chairman, "is this politician good for that amount?” “What!” replied the lawyer, "our friend, the State Boss, good for it? Why, the thief has a million dollars In one building on Twenty-third street!” In their consuming interest in the matter my presence was apparently overlooked, and I stepped softly through the door. These men did not realize its full significance; to them it was merely vengeance visited by a dead man on his enemy, a payment to a rogue in his own pocket-pieces; but to one who knew all the facts, Randolph Mason’s plan had worked a larger justice. Mason had seen instantly that,, if, this mortgage could be lifted, Mrs. Curtis could sell the house, the purchaser's title would be clear, and she could take the money out of the country and conceal it The only problem was to get the cancellation of the mortgage on the This check on the trust funds did thatX and yet left Hie taker of it liable to the assurance company, which owned the funds. Suppose it were technically a crime in Richard R.'Curtis thus temporarily to appropriate the moneys held in trust He was dead and no injury would come to any one innocent of wrong. A dependent woman had her property returned to her; a skulking rogue had his own knife in his ribs, and the Assurance Company of North America would receive Its money with usury. I saw now why the dying man looked upon Randolph Mason as a providence of God.

For the legal principle Involved in this story see Brown v. Ford, L. R. A. New Series 97. In New York see Cohnfeld v. Tannenbaum, 176 N. Y, 126, 98 Am. St. Rep. 653, 68 N. E. 141.

Memory In the Fish.

Continuing his experiments as to whether fish possess memory of association of ideas, M. Oxner obtains some further results. He already found that by placing a red cylinder containing food and also an empty green cylinder in the aquarium with a single fish, the latter soon learned to enter the red cylinder each time it was immersed and avoided the other one. In his later researches, says the Scientific American, he finds that the fish goes into the red vessel and waits until some crumbs are dropped into it, which he then eats. A more striking point is that at other times the fish enters the baited red vessel, even though he does not appear to desire food, seeing that he does not eat at such times. The factor of hunger was, therefore, eliminated here, and we have to do with a habit or a reflex action.

Easy Deduction.

"Hah!" exclaimed Sherlock Holmes Jr., as he bent over the unconscious man. “You have discovered his identity?” asked Dr. Watson. "Not yet,” replied the great ama> teur detective. "But it is evident that he is not a man who is in the habit of going on fishing trips.** "Marvelous! How do you deduce that fact?” “Here is his pocket knife. It has. as you see, a strong corkscrew la it” “Yes, I should think that would Indicate that he was in the habit •£ going on fishing trips.” “Your supposition is childish, n<r dear doctor. Can’t you see that the corkscrew is rusty and has evident never been used?”